SIUC Computing Advisory Committee

 

Meeting Minutes of 16 December 2002

 

Those present: Bob Baer, Ruth Bernhardt, David Carlson, James Duggan (recorder), Susan Logue, Don Olson (ex officio), Don Rice, Amy Sileven, Thom Thibeault, Kelly Thomas, Chih-Fang Wang, Lichang Wang. Two visitors: Charlie Campbell and Jerry Richards (both from Information Technology).

 

Don Olson reported for members of the Undergraduate Technology Fee Committee. The Committee considered nearly 50 requests (totaling over

$2Million) for approximately $800,000 in funds, and has made decisions to fund (or partially fund) approximately 26 proposals. Equipment is now being ordered, and older, but still usable equipment may be transferred to departments that have remaining needs. In the event that there is money remaining after all orders have been received, the committee may consider funding some of the remaining proposals. Don Olson has contacted Vice Chancellor Koropchak and the Graduate Technology Fee Committee to insure there are no overlaps in funding.

 

James Duggan then introduced the proposal to approve the Security Report (distributed earlier in a revised format). Amy Sileven voiced continuing concerns that she and the GPSC had with: 1) the links in the document to other web sites and policies (by approving the security policy she argued that we are approving the embedded web links) and 2) references in the security policy to disciplinary action being taken through the student conduct code (she indicated that GPSC felt that any discipline should be educational in nature, and not punitive; and also objected to references to using the student conduct code since it currently does not deal with the [admittedly new] security policy. It was emphasized that the security policy was a fluid document, and that there would be changes made to it over time, including changes in the embedded links and references to other policies. In addition, the student conduct code committee may need to take a look at the conduct code and possibly incorporate references to the security policy (should it be adopted by the University). Thom Thibeault suggested adding "and viruses" to the description of an "Electronic Mail" policy on page 6 ("[t]his policy covers automatic email forwarding"). Jerry Richards indicated that he felt the Anti-Virus policy description adequately covered this concern. Thom also suggested that IT make sure that personnel were well-trained to deal with these policies, and that LAN administrators would be given notice when network performance testing was being done. Chih-Fang Wang suggested that guidelines for Linux be developed in addition to the UNIX functional guidelines listed on page 5 of the Security Policy; Jerry Richards indicated that they could develop such guidelines should the UNIX guidelines not adequately cover LINUX. The question was called and the Security Policy was approved 10-1. Don Olson will forward the approved report to Vice Chancellors Dunn and Poshard.

 

Charlie Campbell addressed the group about IT's response to combatting excessive bandwidth usage and copyright violations by computer users on campus. IT was able to avert a near network "meltdown" in the Residence Halls (caused by failure of the network-based application recognition

software) in October 2002 by adding more memory, a new server, and by replacing hubs in Thompson Point with switches. Although IT was able to block some applications (i.e., those allowing excessive music and video downloads), the residence halls were limited to 10 Meg of bandwidth, a new router was installed, and a new application-based recognition software will limit some access to certain hours per day. IT has plans to deploy in January 2003 a Residence Hall Support Team, composed of ten IT staff members, who will assist students with computer/network configuration problems (the biggest problem Charlie sees is the failure of users to follow the provided directions). After the first few weeks of the semester two interns will be utilized in assisting with residence hall configuration problems. Charlie also spoke about the continuing problems with user downloads (and allowing downloads) of copyrighted materials. Charlie reported that the University had been contacted by various copyright protection groups to ask that we help educate our computer users about copyright. Charlie described the current process when IT gets a report that a campus IP address is making copyrighted material available (he sends a note to the alleged violator, giving 5 days to respond with either a promise to remove the copyrighted material or provide a "fair-use/educational-use" defense; if the materials is not removed (or a fair-use/educational use defense is not found to be valid), then IT will disable the IP access. IT is looking into sending student violations to Student Judicial Affairs.

 

James Duggan reminded the committee that his term as a member (and chair) of the CAC was up in December, 2002, and asked whether the committee wished to elect a new chair at the December meeting. The committee decided to elect a new chair, and elected David Carlson on a voice vote.

 

The next meeting was not set (David Carlson announced that he would contact everyone by e-mail with suggestions for the next meeting).

 

Please let me know if there are any changes/corrections.